The thing I found funny is that they have a page dedicated to
"methodology", but then they don't tell you very much methodology at all.
(Although, it did say that SkyGO is "provisioning" the consumers with
phones, which I interpret to mean the consumers are getting free cell
phones and service.) Other qualms:

* I'll bet there's a huge Hawthorne Effect here. Especially given the
tight community (1,000 people in Boulder).

* Control groups? Did they, for example, provision 1,000 other people
with WAP phones that *don't* receive ads? Then after 4 months, they can
ask them "say, would you like ads?" See if any of them care about that.

-Matt Jensen
NewsBlip.com
Seattle

On Fri, 22 Dec 2000, Jared Rhine wrote:

> This seems like a shining example of how market studies can be pure
> crap. One of the key conclusions of SkyGo's ongoing wireless
> advertising study[1] is:
>
> 60 percent of participants found wireless advertisements valuable,
> and 27 percent of these users expressed that they would be likely to
> switch wireless service providers to receive ads in the future.
>
> Can you imagine being pissed off that you're not receiving ads and
> deciding that you just have to switch providers so you can start
> receiving ads on your wireless phone?
>
> To follow the money, one should note that SkyGo sells wireless
> advertising solutions[2]:
>
> SkyGo's leading wireless marketing technology, products and services
> are being used to implement the Study and include ad targeting,
> serving and delivery, wireless marketing campaign creation and
> management and m-commerce integration.
>
> I got this pointer originally from fiercewireless.com, which produces
> a fine weekly recap of the wireless industry[3]. I recommend it as
> good reading if you're in to tracking wireless.
>
> [1] http://www.skygo.com/press/12182000.html> [2] http://www.skygo.com/methodology_study.html> [3] http://www.fiercewireless.com/archives/weeklyreport/issue36.htm>
> -- jared@wordzoo.com>
> "Fornicate and take drugs against the terrible strain of idiots who govern
> the world."
> -- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology
>